Where do I go from here?

Upon walking into the house last night from Run Club, I was greeted at the door by my son. He was wearing his tiny kitchen apron, and he exclaimed, as I dumped my back pack to the floor, “We made Kale chips!”. Once I had been informed of this momentus news, he high-tailed it back into the kitchen, bouncing.

It wasn’t until he turned around that I noticed he wasn’t wearing any pants. Oh to be four, and bake in the buff !

I love that my kids are excited about things like Kale chips. Honestly, I have no idea how we lucked out in the kid department… I am sure I sound self-riteous when I say my kids are NOT picky eaters. We can feed them everything, and they try it. Sometimes it is a no, but we never get a “I don’t like this!” with cross-arms and pouting.

For reals, folks.

For instance, my son is really not a fan of mashed sweet potato (always with cauliflower in it), so it usually gets picked at, mushed around and left. My daughter gobbles it like it is fluffy clouds of scrumptiousness, then holds out her plate for more. My daughter, however, is not as big a fan of beef (she does the flick thing with her finger, sending the tiny cut-up pieces skidding across our table like a Crocinole piece), whereas my son will shovel it into his mouth faster than you can blink and say “Chew your food, young man!”

I would like to think we can take credit for some of this ease with food, since we strive to eat as healthy as possible, with the odd burger, chocolate bar or restaurant meal thrown in for sanity (most likely mine… I live for a good burger). We bake all our own bread, we make pizza from scratch, we do our own tortilla (which is super fun, I may add, you can add anything to tortilla dough! Mmmm…). We also take the kids shopping with us as much as we can, to teach them what the food looks like before Mom and Dad dice and slice it. My son loves picking out the apples, my daughter gets a kick out of seeing all the produce and learning the words. She learned “pineapple” last week, although it was repeated in that adorable toddler-ese, which made all the older folks around her in the store do the googly-eyed “aww” noise and smile.

My kids are adorable and perfect, I know. Heh.

Since we shop at Produce Depot, a local fruit/veg store, we are in and out in half an hour with both kids in tow. No, really! The only thing we have to go to a big box store for is cereal, dairy, and staples. Oh, and diapers… boxes and boxes of diapers *headdesk*

I look forward to the day I buy my very last box of diapers. I will throw a party, and everyone who comes gets to take home cookies shaped like tiny tight-whities, and perhaps I will require party hats to be appropriately-sized (clean!) Superman undies. Yes, I know, that sounds like a really fun, not embarrassing or akward time at all, right?

Totally.

So last night, I stopped for a moment in the front hallway, momentarily overwhelmed with pride at the change in my family since last year. My son is excited about where food comes from, how it is grown, how it tastes, wanting to help cook. My daughter enjoys eating, wiggling and clapping her hands in her high chair when she sees the food come to the table. It makes it so much easier for me to eat better, knowing that how we are transforming is making an impact with them. With my healthier choices, comes the idea that healthy food is yummy and normal.

Like this:

One thought on “Kale Chips”

TammyNovember 10, 2012 / 4:16 am

Your kids’ eating habits sound blissful – can you feel the envy wafting across continents?! My daughter is picky, bordering on phobic, about food and I struggle to give her meals that she will actually eat. She loves to help me shop and always has to be the one who carries the shopping list (even though she can’t read it yet), and she loves to help me cook – but eating what we cooked together? Nah! She won’t even taste it and just asks for some cheddar cheese!

I bet you wished you had had a camera to hand when your son turned around!